Books

The Emerald Lie

A Jack Taylor Novel

From the wry master of Irish noir, The Emerald Lie is the latest novel featuring the vigilante antihero Jack Taylor, along with his lethal new sidekick Emily, a troublesomely lovable pup named Storm, and a serial killer with a singular fixation: bad grammar.

Ken Bruen received a doctorate in metaphysics, taught English in South Africa, and then became a crime novelist. The critically acclaimed author of twelve previous Jack Taylor novels and The White Trilogy, he is the recipient of two Barry Awards and two Shamus Awards and has twice been a finalist for the Edgar Award. He lives in Galway, Ireland.

About The Book

Ken Bruen, the “Godfather of the modern Irish crime novel” (Irish Independent), is beloved for his black humor, verse-like prose, and irascible protagonist Jack Taylor, an ex-cop who is as addicted to trouble as he is to Jameson, pills, and pop culture.

In The Emerald Lie, the latest terror to be visited upon the dark Galway streets arrives in a most unusual form: an Eton and Cambridge graduate who becomes murderous over split infinitives, dangling modifiers, and any other sign of bad grammar. Meanwhile, Jack is approached by a grieving father with a pocketful of cash on offer if Jack will help exact revenge on those responsible for his daughter’s brutal rape and murder. Though hesitant to get involved, Jack agrees to get a read on the likely perpetrators. But Jack is soon derailed by the reappearance of Emily (previous alias: Emerald), the chameleon-like young woman who joined forces with Jack to take down her pedophile father in Bruen’s Green Hell and who remains passionate, clever, and utterly homicidal. She is ready to use any sort of coercion to get Jack to conspire with her against the serial killer the Garda have nicknamed “the Grammarian,” but her most destructive obsession just might be Jack himself.

Bruen is in top form with this deadly new addition to the Jack Taylor series.

Praise

“Nobody writes like Ken Bruen, with his ear for lilting Irish prose and his taste for the kind of gallows humor heard only at the foot of the gallows. The Emerald Lie is pure Bruen, with its verbal tics, weird typography and unorthodox wordplay.” —Marilyn Stasio, New York Times Book Review

“No one writes crime novels quite like Ken Bruen. His style takes on the qualities of a somewhat disjointed soliloquy that one can hear in the author’s own voice and no other. He has tinkered with the classic building blocks of the novel, rearranging things here and there and creating a narrative that becomes more unique book by book . . . I picture Bruen not so much writing as transcribing the words of a sweet fallen angel that are whispered feverishly into his ear. The result manifests itself in books that are often sad but frequently funny, so real that one is compelled to keep reading . . . And you should read every one of them.” —Joe Hartlaub, Bookreporter

“Brooding thoughts of suicide and loss haunt Jack Taylor in Irish author Bruen’s [The Emerald Lie] . . . With his easy episodic survey of the moment-to-moment in Jack’s life—each sip of Jameson, every walking of the dog, the sudden beatings and murders—Bruen remains on the mountaintop of contemporary Irish noir. Sprightly, elliptical prose is a plus.” —Publishers Weekly

“Readers of Ken Bruen’s modern noir series featuring Irish ex-cop Jack Taylor will find lots to like in his latest dark thriller, The Emerald Lie . . . To simply describe the setup of the plot is to pay short shrift to Bruen’s prodigious writing skills . . . Not to be missed.” —Bruce Tierney, BookPage